The Teaching and Learning Challenges of 21st-Century Higher Education

Dr Tina Byrom is an educational professional with considerable experience across both compulsory and post-compulsory education settings. Her PhD, completed at the University of Nottingham, UK, focused on interventions that support students who go into higher education from disadvantaged backgrounds. Social justice influences much of her research work, and she is the author of numerous publications, including seven book chapters and six journal articles, that explore notions of “fit” within higher education. She co-authored a book titled Young and Homeless: Exploring the Education, Life Experiences and Aspirations of Homeless Youth, and participated in a Cabinet Office-funded evaluation of interventions used to support homeless young people returning to education. Currently working in enhanced academic practice, she leads a team of educational professionals who deliver developmental opportunities for staff to enhance their teaching and learning practices.

Jackie Cawkwell is an experienced educationalist with a professional background combining academic and professional services staff development, learner development and student support leadership. Her current professional interests include continuing professional learning; academic promotions; critical thinking in the classroom; staff and student experiences of collaborative learning and assessment; and student/staff orientation into higher education. She is actively involved in national teaching recognition internationally and nationally, working closely with the regulatory body, Advance HE. She is also a senior editor of the RAISE Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal.